recent artefact & item changes


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Zot Zealot

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Joined: Thursday, 16th August 2018, 21:19

Post Friday, 14th August 2020, 00:03

recent artefact & item changes

Don't know if this is wise, but lets discuss some recent fixedart changes:

Majin-Bo now gives all your spells vampirism instead of giving archmagi. Casting spells still costs hp.
-This sounds really fun. It might even be worth giving up a shield slot for. I'm really hoping I'll find it before investing 15 skill into shields though... I'm still not sure whether it is worth it after that point.

The shield of resistance was buffed. It now grants 2 pips of all the most important resistances.
-I don't think this was necessary at all. The SoR already was a no-brainer on most characters. A +5 shield of resistance was one of the best shields to hope for (tied with +5 of protection) and MR+ is easily worth 3SH on most characters. Now it's even more of a no-brainer.

Cloak of the Thief no longer has evocable fog, instead having uncontrollable fog when you are damaged.
-I don't think I'll ever wear the CotT again, unless it gets buffed. Uncontrollable fog sounds useless. I never found evocable fog obnoxious, and the -2Slay made the cloak not a no-brainer. It won't be any good for escaping.

Wucad Mu refunds mp when you cast spells some of the time, but also has a chance to give you confusion whenever you cast spells. The chance of an mp-refund increases linearly to 1/3 at 27 evocations. You need at least 10 evocations to use the staff reasonably without it backfiring all the time, which does sound fair.
-I like the change overall but I think getting randomly confused when casting spells is going to make the staff worth it only very rarely. Either if you have clarity or are willing to spend curing potions (eg for boss fights, or near the end of a game). Maybe a downside other then confusion would work nicer.

cloak of rats now automatically spans rats instead of having evocable rats
-I've actually had this on a character whilst the change was being implemented. I was initially just wearing the cloak for +2AC rN+ rPois+, because I could never be bothered to evoke rats. The change feels nice. Having some extra rats show up occasionally was surprisingly helpful. It didn't trigger very often though, and the resistances were still the major benefit.

In addition, hoping this doesn't need it's own thread:

Does anyone like the Scarf of Shadows (-1LOS, -archmagi)?
-I feel like -1LOS is too little to be noticable. I'd still use if if no other cloaks wera available, unless I was using spells of any kind. with -2 or -3 I might use it, but again only on spell-less stabbers. I don't see why this item needs -archmagi.
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Friday, 14th August 2020, 20:17

Re: recent artefact & item changes

petercordia wrote:Does anyone like the Scarf of Shadows (-1LOS, -archmagi)?
-I feel like -1LOS is too little to be noticable. I'd still use if if no other cloaks wera available, unless I was using spells of any kind. with -2 or -3 I might use it, but again only on spell-less stabbers. I don't see why this item needs -archmagi.

I was wearing it on my BaIE in the game that I started weeks ago, and I'm fairly positive that it didn't have -Archmagi at that time. You just alerted me to that fact, and I ripped it off the minute I checked that indeed it gave me -Archmagi. Before that it was quite nice, because it allowed me to shoot Absolute Zero on characters that were almost line-of-sight. Now I have to take two steps toward them before Zero works, giving them the chance to spawn summons that throw Zero off for good.
Maɟaŋ

Abyss Ambulator

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Joined: Tuesday, 4th January 2011, 15:03

Post Wednesday, 19th August 2020, 20:16

Re: recent artefact & item changes

In my experience -Archmagi does not matter much for Absolute Zero. It is extremely loud either way, and there are not other difference. I personally would still wear the scarf on a character with Absolute Zero.

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Majang
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Thursday, 20th August 2020, 13:31

Re: recent artefact & item changes

sanka wrote:I personally would still wear the scarf on a character with Absolute Zero.

Well, unfortunately, even with Vehumet's help you cannot expect to kill everything with Absolute Zero. You need other spells to thin out the resistance, and for those -Archmagi is an impediment.
Maɟaŋ

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petercordia

Blades Runner

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Joined: Thursday, 25th October 2012, 03:19

Post Saturday, 12th September 2020, 08:11

Re: recent artefact & item changes

Majin-Bo - I always wanted to like it, and I've used it for fun here and there but this is a spell-caster item that is 2-handed, where all the other enhancer staffs are 1-handers, so I never wind up using it no matter what it has. I don't quite get the point of it providing life and taking it away at the same time, but whatever I guess. I still generally won't use this item unless it's turned into a 1-hander, or something is done about the atrocious state of 2-handers.

The shield of resistance was buffed - it was a no-brainer to use without the buff.. but thanks (?), I guess, for making it even better. Why though?

Cloak of the Thief no longer has evocable fog - well, so it works more like Dith I guess? Evocable fog was pretty good. I think fog you have to rely upon to proc is far inferior. the -slay on this and lack of other useful things generally steered me away from using the item in the first place. When you can find an artefact cloak that has all good properties, well, this one doesn't seem all that great.

Wucad Mu - Here's a change I positively hate. I was excited to find what was previously one of my favorite items only to discover it felt nearly worthless. Wu-Cad was good for restoring large amounts of mana when you were very low, as a tactical decision/risk. Currently, it seems to not trigger very often at all (it took me a long time to even see it go off) I guess unless you have super-high evocations. The only characters that have super high evocations are characters that have XP to burn, because it's silly to base a character primarily on evocations. It's an auxiliary helper skill that ties to limited charges/timing, not a primary means of progressing. So what happens is, instead of being able to swap to it and maybe take a chance on getting a lot of mana, you're stuck holding a completely worthless melee weapon that occasionally saves you mana but confuses you all the time too. Instead of the extra mana savings, most characters would be much better off with a decent melee or ranged weapon (with artefact properties potentially), or an enchancer staff that can be used for melee and will at least guarantee that you don't need to spend as much mana to kill stuff in the first place by enhancing spell power, and 100% of the time, with no confusion. This change seems like an example of a well-intention change, but one that is more like guesswork about how to make improvements rather than coming from a deep understanding of the item. Maybe at 27 evo it *might* be better than an enhancer staff for mega-zigging, but seriously... I don't know still.

cloak of rats - I wear it for the resists when it makes sense.. but I've never really used the rats much. I don't know if they drain xp like a lot of summons/allies, but unless I specifically know they don't (like the Hep ally), I just tend to not use any ally abilities unless I'm at a point where I don't even need more xp (like summoning angels to block malmutate). Rats don't strike me as very tough creatures, and losing xp early on in the game to me feels more damaging than later on when you're already in areas where you can just keep spawning new levels of the same equivalent difficulty level. So, basically, don't care.

Scarf of Shadows (-1LOS, -archmagi) - Hmm, no I wouldn't likely ever use this, but not even if it didn't have the -archmagi although if I cast that would seal it on it's own. The reason has more to do with I think scarves in general are a stupid idea. None of them can have artefact properties, and they're disadvantaged immediately from the get-go for not providing AC like a cloak. The only scarf I use is for rF+ and rC+, because 2 resists for a little AC loss if you are lacking those resists and going into an area where you need them can be okay, otherwise.. meh to all scarves. The only place I really would care much about reduced LOS is mega-zigging, and you definitely don't want -archmage in that along with gimped AC and no other artefact properties...

Cocytus Succeeder

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Joined: Sunday, 18th December 2011, 13:31

Post Saturday, 12th September 2020, 16:35

Re: recent artefact & item changes

I'm currently using the *fog cloak of thief and is still extremely good.
Sure it isn't crazily overpowered like the +fog one, but the fog triggers quite often - and pretty much in every "dangerous" situation.
I wouldn't use on a character relying on ranged attack - because with those the uncontrollable reduction of LOS can be actually detrimental - but always on any "melee" dude. The fog effect is still totally worth of the -2 slay.
screw it I hate this character I'm gonna go melee Gastronok

Tomb Titivator

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Joined: Sunday, 30th December 2012, 05:26

Post Wednesday, 16th September 2020, 16:20

Re: recent artefact & item changes

-1 los seems really powerful to me actually, it needs a definite downside to balance it

Shoals Surfer

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Joined: Friday, 13th December 2019, 01:33

Post Wednesday, 16th September 2020, 23:43

Re: recent artefact & item changes

Well, but it is an unrandart --- those are meant to be good --- and it's a scarf.

Tomb Titivator

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Joined: Sunday, 30th December 2012, 05:26

Post Friday, 18th September 2020, 03:14

Re: recent artefact & item changes

yeah and -1 los is really good

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